This invention relates to a window shade and, more particularly, to a window shade assembly including a telescoping roller.
The number of sizes of window openings into which window shades must be fitted is limitless. Practically, all shades will be in the range of 25 to 72 inches; but there are window openings for every dimension within that range, and in older houses, the window openings are frequently less than 25 inches wide. In the application of shades to windows, these shades must conform to the window size rather than the window size conforming to the available size of shade manufactured. This is true not only for newly constructed buildings, but obviously also for those buildings which were erected many years ago. For these reasons, when a customer wants a shade, it is common practice to select an oversized shade and to cut its length to the size of the window opening into which the shade is to be mounted.
One type of shade roller now being manufactured includes a solid wooden roller or hollow metal roller having a spring motor connected between the roller and spear which is fixed against rotation in a slotted bracket. The other end of the roller has a cap containing a gudgeon pin which is fixed to the cap and which is adapted to be rotatably mounted in a bracket. A principal outlet for shades of this type and the place in which most of the cutting to size is performed is the variety, discount or department store. The cutting of the shade to size in such an establishment is at best an annoying undertaking.
The window shades described and disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,203,468; 3,299,944; and 3,580,323; all assigned to the assignee of this invention, provide improvements over prior art shades and methods of sizing. These shades comprise two sections, one being telescopable into the other for supporting the shade material so that the shortening of the shade can be effected merely by cutting the shade material and the slat running through the hem pocket, sliding the cut material from the roller, and telescoping the projecting portion of the roller into its adjoining section. Shades of this type have eliminated much of the odium theretofore attending shade shortening by providing an assembly which can be simply shortened by telescoping one section of the shade roller into another section.
All of the window shades described in the above patents offer significant improvements over prior devices with respect to the simplicity with which the shade can be shortened and the aesthetic appeal of the shade arising from elimination of any drooping or wrinkling of the shade material. However, in each form, it is necessary to provide an interposed tube of paper or other cuttable material surrounding at least the projecting end of the smaller roller section to which the shade is adhesively secured. This is true even in window shades which are hand-strippable such as that described and disclosed in copending application U.S. Ser. No. 785,368, assigned to the assignee of this invention.